Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost
by jada jasmine
Summary: When Serena has exactly three weeks of boarding school left in her sophomore year, she’s surprised to see Carter Baizen strolling through the halls of her self-inflicted exile." Serena. Carter. A summer in Europe.


**"To fall in love is awfully simple, but to fall out of love is simply awful."**

**Bess Myerson**

* * *

When Serena has exactly three weeks of boarding school left in her sophomore year, she's surprised to see Carter Baizen strolling through the halls of her self-inflicted exile. He's charming and witty and beautiful and still smirks like the devil, and when he brings her hand to his lips, she rolls her eyes but her stomach drops down to the floor.

"What are you doing here?" Blue eyes meet blue eyes, and it takes one missippi two missippi three missippi four before he responds.

"Visiting an old friend. Wondering if she would be interested in escaping from this hellhole. Shawshank Redemption and all that jazz."

She giggles, of course, because she is breathy and girly and beautiful. It only takes two missippi's for her to counter with an absolutely. It's not her fault y'know. Kindred spirits and the like.

* * *

_"Ahh, pour être des jeunes et dans l'amour"_

* * *

**_  
_**

They start in Paris. The lights are bright and the views are breathtaking and the food has never tasted better.

Old women practically coo at the sight of the two, and Serena giggles at the exclamations while Carter laughs along with her. She catches him once (but only once) looking at her out of the corner of his eye, and the giggle stops somewhere between her esophagus and her uvula. But she shakes it off and kisses him teasingly and prances back to the patisserie where they serve a divine croissant and chocolat chaud.

She's still a wild child, and hanging out with the infamous Carter Baizen only brings out the wildest in her. She steals two crispy baguettes and he slips a wheel of brie underneath his Armani coat along with pink champagne and they feast on the lawn in front of the Eiffel Tower.

When she wakes up the next morning, nuzzled under his left arm with nothing but the sheets on, she swears she can still taste the champagne on his breath.

Their last night, she gets too drunk on Veuve Cliquot and the lights on the Eiffel Tower are bright like the stars. She stumbles and falls, gracefully, in true Serena fashion and it seems like he's always there to catch her. As he places her in the bed, he whispers, "Bon soir, mon petit chou," and places a feather-soft kiss onto her cheek. She wonders when she started living Blair's idea of a perfect life, and stranger still, when she started to enjoy it.

She only thinks of Nate seven times during the week (once per day), and it's only because Carter and Nate are made from practically the same pattern of the same cloth in the same size (tall, broad, beautiful). It's a record for her.

* * *

**_"per essere i giovani e nell'amore"_**

* * *

**_  
_**

They get on a plane and when they get off, they're in another country, another city. Venice awaits, and she can hardly wait, grabbing his hand to rush through the baggage claim and out into the Venetian air.

They walk and walk and walk, but avoid the museums and the touristy traps of the centuries-old city. Casually leaning against an old building, smiling cheekily at her when she chases the pigeons away, she thinks he could be Casanova, but the birds coo louder and the thought disappears.

Riding in a gondola at night in Venice, with the stars overheard and the sound of Andrea Bocelli in the distance, Serena can't believe this is her life. Carter puts his arm around her (left arm, always) and she nestles her head into his neck (leans her head to the right, always) and she closes her eyes. When she opens them, he's still holding on to her and the music's still playing and they're still in Venice.

They run into several famous Italian soccer players, and each is completely besotted by Serena. Lust in their eyes, they invite her out to dinner and afterwards….who knows? She smiles and bats her eyelashes, playing the part of Lilly Lavender, who's regretfully engaged to a certain Reggie Rose. Reggie steps in at the moment, protectively placing a kiss upon Serena's head and pulling her into his lap. The football team grumbles, obviously disappointed, but the invitation still stands. After pasta and pizza and wine wine wine, they go out and Serena discovers Deangelo, Emilio, and Fabio. Still, everytime she turns around Reggie Rose's eyes seem to be locked onto Lilly Lavender.

Old women still coo over them in restaurants, only in Italian not French, and they both still laugh. But sometimes, she just smiles instead. And sometimes, he just smiles right back.

* * *

**_"para ser jóvenes y en el amor"_**

* * *

**_  
_**

Detour to Barcelona, she insists, because she vaguely remembers glamorous buildings by Gaudi from art history class. She's been to Madrid and Valencia, but Barcelona has evaded her and ever since the Woody Allen movie it's become much more chic.

He laughs when she tells him this, says it was more chic the second they landed than any Woody Allen film could make it. She agrees, putting on an awful Spanish accent and doing her best Penelope Cruz impression. He plays along, his flawless Spanish surprising her. She's so surprised that she stops mid-sentence, staring at him with those blue eyes of hers. He smirks at her, and kisses the surprise off her face.

Two old ladies walk by, muttering about glory days and young love. Carter and Serena are too wrapped up in each other to notice.

When they finally reach the Parc Guell, Serena's more interested in the way Carter passionately explains the architecture and why Gaudi was such a genius than in the actual park. His eyes light up, and he scruffs his hair, and he smiles like no one's watching when he really loves something.

"So you're an architect, huh, Baizen?" She tilts her head in a way she knows is adorable, blond hair cascading over her face and ocean blue eyes peeping out.

"In a different life." The sentence is just so him, resplendent of world travelings and life experiences, and it makes her feel like the sixteen year old girl she is who's life is contained to a single section of a single city.

"Well what was I?"

"Probably Helen of Troy."

She throws her head back and laughs, thinking she could never be such a serious person, could never cause so much damage. But Blair and Nate (god, _Nate_) all remind her that maybe she could. So she stops laughing, and just nods, while he takes her hand and walks her through the rest.

It's a warm Thursday night, after midnight but before dawn, when Carter meets up with a few of his friends and brings Serena along. Charlie Dern, Anthony Avuldsen, and Jeremy Tompkinson all from the Upper East Side's very own Lost Generation. They get high on pineapple express and laugh about the movie, wandering the cobblestone streets of Spain. When the munchies hit, the five wander into the closest all-nighter and down some seafood paella whilst being serenaded by a mariachi band.

When the sun starts to rise, and the high starts to disappear, Carter whisks Serena away with a nod of goodbye to his friends. They have sex on a bench in the Parc Guell while the sunrises, and she gains a whole new appreciation for the architect.

They leave to pack their things, because the car's picking them up to go to Santorini in exactly thirty five minutes, but Serena sets her MacBook Pro's background to a picture of the park's entrance.

* * *

**_"να είναι νέοι και αγάπη"_**

* * *

**_  
_**

Paris may be romantic, and Venice might be historical, and Barcelona may be chic, but by God is Santorini beautiful. The sky is blue and the oceans are bluer and the paint on the domes is bluer still.

She watches an old woman dressed in black as she walks by the two lovers, not surprised at all when the woman has a wistful look on her face, muttering in Greek to herself about love and lost youth. She thinks that maybe, she does love this boy with a cocky smile and a traveler's soul. But only maybe.

The next day, she screams "Opah!" as a burning fish is brought to her on a plate. After doing several shots of ouzo, she waits for Carter to pay the bill and saunters outside. When he rejoins her, they lazily walk back to the hotel, his finger slung in the back pocket of her jean skirt. When they walk past a cliff, she smiles devilishly at him and immediately starts taking off her clothes.

Her entire body is silhouetted in the moonlight and he doesn't know if he can quite name the feeling that's lodged in his head, in his heart, in his entire body. Even though it's night, and even though it's dangerous, and even though he's a little scared to jump off that cliff himself, he watches her dive and immediately follows suit.

The days pass in a haze of sex, gyros, and the color blue. Neither one complains.

They go out to a nightclub and Serena and Carter are both in white. The music is thumping and the alcohols pouring and all of a sudden Serena thinks her ear might've been blown off.

The gunshots are everywhere but sound too close to be far away and she puts her fist in her mouth to keep from screaming.

Carter throws himself over her and keeps her down on the floor which is sticky wet.

The lights finally come on and Carter's standing now and people are pointing fingers at him while screaming.

Serena doesn't understand Greek but she knows that they think it's him and she can't think straight because her new Catherine Malandrino is covered in blood.

Maybe it's because he's the only one who managed to come out of hell looking perfect, with not a spot of red on his white outfit.

She runs out of the club and Carter does too, and the feel of his hand around her wrist makes her skin prickle.

"Are you okay? Is any part of you hurt at all? I'm taking you to a hospital."

Serena still can't talk and she can hear someone sobbing until- oh wait, that's her.

Carter hugs and her and kisses her and might love her and takes her back to the room.

She's gone the next morning.

* * *

**"ahhh to be young and in love."**

* * *

**  
**

Serena hides in the Hamptons for a month until her exile resumes, and she refuses to leave the large estate.

She trembles everytime she spills red wine on her white outfit and shakes a little bit when she hears fireworks but she's putting herself back together.

Carter calls and calls and calls until he doesn't anymore.

She hears from Gossip Girl that he's in Asia now, calling Europe a place for the rich to waste money, and that it's impossible to experience anything real.

She's not a genius but even at that the irony doesn't escape her.

* * *

**  
**

**AN: Sooooo a) I am obsessed with Carter Baizen. Preferably with Blair, but I can't write Blair Waldorf to save my life. I leave that to the professionals. B) I am also incapable of writing about anyone other than Serena obviously. Haha. But seriously, read mystripedskirt's Carter/Blair stories and you'll fall in love toooo. **


End file.
